The Golden State Warriors made another push to retain Jonathan Kuminga over the past several days, but the restricted free agent is continuing to decline their two-year, $45 million contract offer, sources told ESPN on Wednesday.
Kuminga’s decision is due in large part to the Warriors’ insistence on having a team option for the second season and their unwillingness to let him maintain the built-in no-trade clause, sources said.
His agent, Aaron Turner, presented the Warriors a few frameworks during a pair of summer league meetings in Las Vegas, including a three-year deal worth around $82 million that allowed the Warriors to stay below the second apron to use the taxpayer midlevel exception.
Kuminga and Turner have used July to explore their sign-and-trade options. The most significant negotiations have been with the Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns, getting proposals up to four years approaching $90 million total, including a player option for the final season, sources said. Phoenix has made the most lucrative push via sign-and-trade.
The Warriors have been uninterested in the trade returns from the Kings and Suns for Kuminga, sources said. In recent days, they have begun signaling a plan to cut off sign-and-trade conversations entirely, using their restricted free agency leverage to the fullest, sources said. Their current stance is that Kuminga will be on the Warriors’ roster to begin next season — either through their two-year offer on the table or the standing $7.9 million one-year qualifying offer, whichever is Kuminga’s preferred path.
Kuminga prefers the longer-term offers presented by the Kings and Suns because he believes they signify a fresh start, a larger guaranteed role, a promised starting position and a greater level of respect and career control, shown in part through the player option, sources said. Phoenix’s proposal is also nearly $70 million more guaranteed than the Warriors’ offer.
Kuminga told ESPN last week that he is in no rush to move forward with a deal with the Warriors.
This continued stalemate is largely about control, and the option dispute is at the crux of it. Kuminga believes accepting the Warriors’ two-year offer with a team option, along with forfeiting trade veto rights, cedes too much control to a franchise he believes has stunted and strung his career along for four seasons, sources said.
The Suns and Kings have pitched Kuminga on the type of defined role that has eluded him with the Warriors. Golden State coach Steve Kerr made several comments after the Jimmy Butler trade that Kuminga’s fit alongside Butler, Stephen Curry and Draymond Green made it difficult to play him consistent big minutes. Sources said Kuminga is more enticed with the external options while viewing Kerr as someone who has made it clear there is not a defined big-minute opportunity for him every night with the Warriors.
The Warriors, sources said, believe they have the best offer on the table for Kuminga because of the highest starting salary ($21.7 million next season compared to $19.8 million elsewhere) and the two-year team option concept. The deal is purposefully structured to be tradable come Jan. 15, and if Kuminga’s ultimate desire is to play elsewhere, it would allow his next team to decline the team option and extend him. He would be the fourth-highest-paid player on the Warriors next season if he accepted the offer.
Golden State is the only NBA team that has not made an offseason acquisition due to the lack of a resolution with Kuminga.
Based on the collective bargaining agreement, the Warriors’ proposed one-plus-one contract would have an inherent no-trade clause, as Kuminga’s next team wouldn’t maintain his Bird rights. That would give Kuminga a level of control over his next NBA home, should the Warriors decide to move him. But the Warriors have requested that he waive that implied no-trade clause, sources said, similar to what D’Angelo Russell did for his Lakers contract in the summer of 2023.
That negotiation haggle is another example of the ongoing tug-of-war for control of Kuminga’s future. It’s why, despite the short- and long-term financial risk, Kuminga is expressing a willingness to potentially take the qualifying offer. He would be declining nearly $14 million extra next season but would give himself an implied no-trade clause and a shot at unrestricted free agency next summer at 23 years old.
Kuminga has an Oct. 1 deadline to sign the qualifying offer.
